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His medical notes stated he had a history of drugs misuse dating back to 1994.

Mr Price, a father, had managed to successfully lead an independent life, but in 2015 he accidentally reversed his wheelchair down a flight of stairs which caused him to lose confidence.

He received a care package which included visits four times a day from a Bluebird Care Exeter.

Care supervisor Jenna Hill said that as Mr Price had "full capacity" they had to respect his right to want to smoke, and would leave him with lighters and roll-up cigarettes on a tray which he could reach when they left.

She added if he dropped anything he could struggle to pick it up because of disability and added: “Care staff would find cigarettes in his lap that had fallen from his mouth and had gone out.”

The lounge of Sean Price's flat

Despite the safety warnings staff gave him she said he remained adamant he wanted to smoke.

The last person to see him alive was care worker Cameron Long who left him following a second visit on October 9, at around 12.50pm.

He described having observed unusual behaviour such as Mr Price being very slow to respond to him, not wanting to make conversation, not wanting a hot meal for lunch and had not passed any urine.

He said that when he left Mr Price he was left with cigarettes and lighters on his tray as usual, and it was not uncommon to find ash on the floor and sometimes cigarettes.

The alarm was raised later that afternoon when smoke was seen billowing from his lounge window at around 4.40pm.

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Passerby Stuart Naylor, an engineer, told the inquest he had received some fire training when he was in the Army.

He managed to kick down the door of Mr Price’s flat but said he was unable to enter because of the smoke and intense heat.

“I knew from my previous military training that it was too dangerous.”

He was thanked by Mr Price’s family for his efforts, and Mr Naylor replied: “I’m sorry I couldn’t go in. I always look back and wish I had been there 10 minutes earlier.”

When the fire service arrived Mr Price was found deceased in his wheelchair in the lounge.

Tributes were left at the scene of the fire for Sean Price

A fire investigation confirmed the fire had broken out where Mr Price had been sat in his electric wheelchair which he was strapped into and used all the time.

The report stated it was not believed there had been an electrical fault with the wheelchair and that rolled cigarettes fail to sustain smouldering tips.

The conclusion was the fire had been the result of the ignition of combustible materials of a naked flame such as a lighter.

However, there was no evidence of the material the naked flame came into contact with while potentially lighting a cigarette.

A post mortem examination described it as a complex case due to the destructive nature of the fire, but confirmed the cause of death was thermal injury against a background of chronic disability and epilepsy due to anoxic brain injury with aortic stenosis.

A toxicology report found neither drugs or alcohol had been taken prior to death.

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Recording a conclusion of accidental death, coroner Elizabeth Earland, said: “Mr Price, who was brain damaged and wheelchair bound with only the use of his right hand, was consumed by fire following the ignition of combustible materials, probably by a lighter.”

She added: “It was a tragic end to a man who made the best of his circumstances.”

In 1998, the Express & Echo reported how Mr Price, a former scrap car dealer who was born in Sheffield, had been flown back to the UK after he contracted malaria in Thailand while on a minor drugs charge.

He fell into a coma after developing complications including pneumonia and blood poisoning, but was able to return home after his family raised £35,000.

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Mr Price, then 28, had been recovering in hospital in Bangkok having been arrested the previous November while on holiday in the popular Thai resort of Pattaya.

The family said he caught malaria in Chonburi Jail near Bangkok while awaiting sentence.

It was told how it was believed Thai authorities allowed Mr Price to return to his home in Exeter on compassionate grounds, and because the charge was relatively minor.

He then appeared in the Echo again in 1999, in a feature about Mardon House where he was being rehabilitated following being brain damaged and paralysed.*